Let’s not beat about the bush. I really don’t want to talk about tea this week. I barely even want to drink tea.
I ran out of big tins when my TG order came in, and the Pai Mu Tan is so leafy that it wouldn’t fit into my biggest tin, so there’s extra still in the pouch. I’m trying to use it up before it gets stale, and that’s the only reason I’m drinking this today.
Now get off my lawn.
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I bought canning mason jars from the store to offset my loose tea overflow. I make sure the lid is nice and tight and store it out of the light. Works just fine for those “odd” amounts that won’t fit in my favorite tins I’ve been collecting. :)
The problem is, we have a huge tin collection, they’re just mostly for 100-200g of small teas. Big, leafy whites are kind of a wild card. I have one of the huge, gold 500g-1kg tins from the TG shop in Chicago that Sam gave me because I was buying this one white tea they had that was already so leafy, even dry, that 100g of it barely fit in it, let alone in a retail bag. But that has the dregs of my pu-erh in it (because I tend to buy that 500g at a time). I could split the white up into lots of small tins, but I only have the one label.
Mostly I’m lazy.
I’ve almost given up on tins. Just trying to drink everything quickly. :) Since I buy a lot of flavored stuff, my tins are all contaminated with stink. I cannot get the smell of Teavana out of them.
Glass is a great alternative because (as far as I know) it doesn’t retain the smell of the tea after you wash it and dry it. One of my favorite local tea houses stores all of her bulk teas in glass for this reason.
Thanks Amy. My teas are in a drawer out of the light, so that might work (plus I can get those locally and not pay for shipping). I just read the thread on this topic and will try some vinegar in them… I already tried baking soda.
The Super Serious Tea Blog™ I have been reading insists that only glazed porcelain is appropriate for storing tea, claiming the metal impacts the flavor. Glass is molecularly similar to glaze, so that’s probably fine, aside from letting in light.
So, I do need to, with time, phase out the tins, but this will take a while. I’m still investing in LED light bulbs for the whole house which, while using 1/10th the electricity and lasting tens of thousands of hours, are still about $40 a piece plus shipping.
I just need to remember not to buy leafy whites unless the big, gold tin is empty.
I feel so glazed and molecular now. ;)
But don’t the glass jars have metal lids?
The lid isn’t likely to be in contact with the leaves the way you find in a metal tin. I assume.
My stuff sits sideways in a drawer, so it probably would, sigh.
A layer of cheesecloth or linen under the lid?
If you get some with a pressure seal the lid can be glass too; I’m not sure of the word for that type of closure, but you can see it here http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/foodStorage/jarsTerrines?productId=10011037
“bail & seal” ~ it was in the description field.
A neatly stacked cupboard (very) full of those jars would look quite lovely and be very tantalizing. Or, at least, the picture in my mind of it is.
One of the creepiest apartments I ever had when I was young and poor (relatively) inexplicably had, on the top shelf of one of the cabinets, about 100 small, empty, cleaned jelly jars, all stacked very neatly. For some reason it was really freaky. When we had parties, if people tried to use one to drink out of I’d get upset. I had this deep fear they were like some kind of puzzle box and we shouldn’t ever move them.
I bought canning mason jars from the store to offset my loose tea overflow. I make sure the lid is nice and tight and store it out of the light. Works just fine for those “odd” amounts that won’t fit in my favorite tins I’ve been collecting. :)
The problem is, we have a huge tin collection, they’re just mostly for 100-200g of small teas. Big, leafy whites are kind of a wild card. I have one of the huge, gold 500g-1kg tins from the TG shop in Chicago that Sam gave me because I was buying this one white tea they had that was already so leafy, even dry, that 100g of it barely fit in it, let alone in a retail bag. But that has the dregs of my pu-erh in it (because I tend to buy that 500g at a time). I could split the white up into lots of small tins, but I only have the one label.
Mostly I’m lazy.
I’ve almost given up on tins. Just trying to drink everything quickly. :) Since I buy a lot of flavored stuff, my tins are all contaminated with stink. I cannot get the smell of Teavana out of them.
Glass is a great alternative because (as far as I know) it doesn’t retain the smell of the tea after you wash it and dry it. One of my favorite local tea houses stores all of her bulk teas in glass for this reason.
Thanks Amy. My teas are in a drawer out of the light, so that might work (plus I can get those locally and not pay for shipping). I just read the thread on this topic and will try some vinegar in them… I already tried baking soda.
The Super Serious Tea Blog™ I have been reading insists that only glazed porcelain is appropriate for storing tea, claiming the metal impacts the flavor. Glass is molecularly similar to glaze, so that’s probably fine, aside from letting in light.
So, I do need to, with time, phase out the tins, but this will take a while. I’m still investing in LED light bulbs for the whole house which, while using 1/10th the electricity and lasting tens of thousands of hours, are still about $40 a piece plus shipping.
I just need to remember not to buy leafy whites unless the big, gold tin is empty.
I feel so glazed and molecular now. ;)
But don’t the glass jars have metal lids?
The lid isn’t likely to be in contact with the leaves the way you find in a metal tin. I assume.
My stuff sits sideways in a drawer, so it probably would, sigh.
A layer of cheesecloth or linen under the lid?
If you get some with a pressure seal the lid can be glass too; I’m not sure of the word for that type of closure, but you can see it here http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/foodStorage/jarsTerrines?productId=10011037
“bail & seal” ~ it was in the description field.
A neatly stacked cupboard (very) full of those jars would look quite lovely and be very tantalizing. Or, at least, the picture in my mind of it is.
One of the creepiest apartments I ever had when I was young and poor (relatively) inexplicably had, on the top shelf of one of the cabinets, about 100 small, empty, cleaned jelly jars, all stacked very neatly. For some reason it was really freaky. When we had parties, if people tried to use one to drink out of I’d get upset. I had this deep fear they were like some kind of puzzle box and we shouldn’t ever move them.